SAGES STORYOn 3/15/00 I asked my Vet for a
Heartworm preventive for my 2 year old Australian Shepherd, Sage. They
recommended Pfizer's Revolution for dogs. It was applied on 3/15/00. On
3/20/00 Sage developed a cough, but she was otherwise fine. She'd had a bath at
the Vet on 3/15/00 also, so I decided to watch her for further symptoms. On
3/23/00 she was fine, until late afternoon when she became quiet and didn't want
to play. By 7pm that night, she had trouble opening her left eye and whimpered
when she jumped down from the couch or bed. In the past, Sage always had a
tendency to bruise easily. She had sensitive skin and had worried an area until
it had bruised. She had no trouble with her blood clotting and had been
previously spayed.She now had bruising on her body. When I took her to the
Vet, he asked if she had been in rat poison. I informed him that she was an
inside dog and only went out to play with the kids and to use the bathroom. My
neighbors have pets and do not put out poisons. They also asked if she had had
a blow to the head because there was blood in the whites of her eyes that was
not there yesterday. I stated that she was not hit in the head. I asked if it
could be the Revolution and was informed by the Vet that it could not be. I
told my vet that was the only thing that Sage had been exposed to.He did a
CBC and her platelets were 87 and WBC count was 27,000. Her Hematocrit (Hct) was
37. He treated her for infection and rat poisoning and sent us home. Within 3
hours she was falling over. I rushed her back to the Vet and he kept her until
5pm that afternoon. I brought her home after they said she was doing better.At
6pm she was again falling over and I called my Vet back and was informed to
bring her back the next day. By 11pm, she was bleeding from her nose and had
vomited with streaks of bright red blood. My husband and Idrove her to an ER clinic in
Savannah, GA and was told that it was either a tick born disease or rat
poisoning or a blow to the head. I again asked if could be the Revolution
and was informed no. They kept her and treated her as my vet. When I
called at 6am, I was informed that she was having seizures but she was
otherwise stable. I was worried about a subdural hematoma and talked with my
Vet. He suggested I take Sage to Charleston, SC to see aSpecialist. She arrived there
at 4:30pm. When I gave her history, I again asked if it could be the
Revolution and was informed no. Later that night Sage continued to have
seizures and she bled into the orbits of her eyes, but they said their was still
hope. At 6:45am they called and said Sage had arrested and was on a
ventilator.We asked that they let her go. This has been devastating to my
family. We loved Sage. She was a family member. At 10am, the clinic called
and asked permission to perform an autopsy. They informed me that another dog
had died last month there, with symptoms the same as Sage. The dog was an
inside dog and the only thing different was that the owner had started
Revolution. The dog died of low platelets and intracranial hemorrhage
just likeSage. (editors note: these symptoms resemble those of
Thrombocytopenia.)The vet in Charleston called the Revolution people
(Pfizer)
and they are paying for Sages autopsy. They also paid for the other dogs'
autopsy. That autopsy showed low platelets and intracranial hemorrhage from a
toxin. (? Revolution was the only toxin the owners had given). I will not know
the results of the autopsy for a month, but I presonally believe it could have
been the Revolution. If 2 dogs have died in the Savannah Charleston area
in the last month, how many nation wide?Please spread the word for owners to
be careful about using this drug on their dogs. No dog should suffer like my
Sage suffered. I am simply expressing my OPINION at this point. No proof has
been made of our suspicions, but we feel obliged to notify the public of our
fears of a potential problem.Thanks for
Listening,Terri EddyRincon, GAEditors Notes: I verified this information of 4/2/00 by speaking with Terri on
the phone. Terri is a nurse, and is knowledgeable regarding drugs and testing.
While she is very saddened by the loss of her beloved Sage, she is NOT accusing
Pfizer of anything. Instead she wishes other dog owners to exercise caution in
the use of this drug until more info is forthcoming. When the results of
Sages Autopsy are available, I will publish them here. Here is Terri's
Addendum:Attention: If you have read my previous message concerning
Revolution and the death of my dog Sage, please read this message. This is
strictly my opinion until the autopsy reports are back. I just want people to
be cautious when considering using this product on their animals until further
evidence is available. Terri EddyFOLLOW UP- FIRST MEDICAL
REPORT______________________________________________________________________________________________
I'm
praying as hard as I can. Mira, our Maltese, was given Revolution by a MI Vet
after her Rescue (she was on the wires in MO for TEN years). It was supposed to
be the "Cure All" almost 5 years ago when it was given to her. Mira, God love
her, survived without any major problems but our Vets here in NY said they feel
a drug strong enough to kill off so many things is TOO STRONG for them to
dispense. Prayers for Bear and please let us know......

I can't believe it, it
happened to my adopted bichon Shelby AKA Sante Fe Sandi on May 14, 2004. I
decided to contact Pfizer after my vet politely told me to try it again the next
month and if they same thing happened again then I should change flea
medication. Pfizer has refunded my money for the Revolution and I am now trying
to get paid for the vet bill. The dosage is too stronge for our delicate
bichons. The drug range is under 10lbs or 10 to 20 lbs and Shelby is only 11
lbs which is what the vet told me I needed due to Shelby's increase in weight.
My vet gave Shelby a few injections and it took 3 days for her to begin to move
around again. She is doing better but has not been the same since. I should have
notified my bichon family as I thought this was an isolated incident. I am so
sorry I may have been able to save Bear from this terrible toxic
drug.

Dale,
I have attached a website that describes 2 experiences with Revolution and at
the bottom of the site has additional links to get even more info about side
effects, etc. It sounds like some very bad stuff. We should all be looking for
natural/organic ways to help our babies. Chemicals kill! I hope this info helps
even a little. Our bichons cannot handle drugs of any kind. Take care,
Susan
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks so much for the update. There have been many dogs who have
become critically ill and have even died from Revolution. :(

Praying for
this little one's recovery,

Nancy

We have had several adverse reactions for Bichons, with
revolution. Below is more. Pfizer says it is not recommended for any dog that is
sick or weak.

A http://www.smallpawsrescue.org/pup3/revolution.html

http://www.fda.gov/cvm/Documents/CVMFortDodgeDocument.doc

nbc5i.com
- Family - Heartworm Medicine Linked To Sickness, Death
(http://www.nbc5i.com/family/3345322/detail.html)
Scroll down to see
chart about Revolution which states:
"Revolution (Selamectin): Total adverse
reactions 8695. Total Deaths 181. Year Approved. 1999"

I can't believe
it, it happened to my adopted bichon Shelby AKA Sante Fe Sandi on May 14, 2004.
I decided to contact Pfizer after my vet politely told me to try it again the
next month and if they same thing happened again then I should change flea
medication. Pfizer has refunded my money for the Revolution and I am now trying
to get paid for the vet bill. The dosage is too stronge for our delicate
bichons. The drug range is under 10lbs or 10 to 20 lbs and Shelby is only 11
lbs which is what the vet told me I needed due to Shelby's increase in weight.
My vet gave Shelby a few injections and it took 3 days for her to begin to move
around again. She is doing better but has not been the same since. I should have
notified my bichon family as I thought this was an isolated incident. I am so
sorry I may have been able to save Bear from this terrible toxic
drug.

Dale, I have attached a
website that describes 2 experiences with Revolution and at the bottom of the
site has additional links to get even more info about side effects, etc. It
sounds like some very bad stuff. We should all be looking for natural/organic
ways to help our babies. Chemicals kill! I hope this info helps even a little.
Our bichons cannot handle drugs of any kind. Take care,
Susan
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks so much for the update. There have been many dogs who have
become critically ill and have even died from Revolution. :(

Praying for
this little one's recovery,

Nancy>

<I called my vet the
other day. He did state that he recommends Revolution for cats, but has
discontinued the sale of it for dogs. He stated that he has witnessed dogs get
very sick from Revolution & even die from the product! In May of 2002, I
had a very healthy yellow lab, named Zack, that all of a sudden died one Sunday
afternoon. He was okay one minute & the next we found him lying in the
bushes beside our house. Zack was dead. A week earlier he was given
Revolution. Revolution was contacted, but stated they had no complaints or any
adverse reactions that had been reported to their company & did absolutely
nothing. Revolution is the most expensive product on the market today.
Consumers need to realize & be made aware that these inexpensive as

well as "top of the line" (expensive) "flea & tick control products"
are both dangerous & DEADLY.
Nicole 8/3/05<

<If anyone
would like to help me with my crusade to put this company out of business,
please contact me.

animalnutzo@yahoo.com

Laura
8/23/05

PS. We also had a really bad reaction two years ago with
one of my dogs to Revolution. The company never responded. Our dog was in the
ICU for three days and was on massive amounts of medication to counter act the
reaction to that product. >

<Last week our blind epileptic 4 year
old lab received a flea treatment. Our Vet checked the product information
sheet before applying the widely used treatment of Revolution. There was
nothing to indicate he could not receive a treatment. We are an Animal
Sanctuary and use the product always without so much as a question as we regard
it as safe. Our lab came into contact with some rescued kittens that had fleas
which is why we gave him the treatment, more as a preventative measure. We
love our boy very much and spare nothing on his care (he broke his two front
legs and spent over $8000.00 on surgery to fix them)

Anyway,
three days after applying Revolution our epileptic dog who has seizures like
clockwork every three weeks, went into a series of cluster seizures. We brought
him to our regular Vet who had him transferred over to an emergency centre. We
started to rule out what was causing the clustering. That
is when I
remembered the Revolution treatment.

I called the drug company and asked
in desperation if possibly this is what could have caused his cluster seizures.
Their response was "Based on your dog's history of epilepsy, he would not be a

good candidate for our product." When I asked them why they simply
could not put that in the product information leaflet, Their response "Not
enough research to warrent so." They also explained the time of 3 days after
application as to time of seizing. It takes that long to be absorbed into the
central nervous system.

Our Vet was furious, as she had no idea and she
felt horrible as she truly loves our special dog, nearly as much as we
do.

Our boy survived the clusters (THANK GOODNESS), and the drug company
has agreed to pay for all the bloodwork we did, however we are on our own for
the other $1000.00 we spent on the emergency ICU care to pull him
through.

We love our boy, and would never do anything to harm him, why
can they not just put this stuff on the label?????Kelli 8/30/05

Pfizer
will only reimburse my fee's associated with bloodwork...not the 36 hour care in
ICU or the IV hookup or medication. They said that is in accordance with their
policy.

They also said they have no information linking dogs with
epilepsy going into cluster seizures, so they will not change the general
product information sheet due to my one epileptic dog having a (possible)
reaction.

His blood was so obscured the day of the cluster seizures the
bloodwork was useless, so they had to redraw blood today. CBC toxology,
phenobarb/KBR therapeutic test, thyroid test etc...

I am just worried
sick for the next month until this stuff is suppose to be out of his
system.

His epilepsy is controlled to like I said earlier..1 seizure
every three weeks....seems odd that three days after receiving revolution (the
only change) he went into a series of cluster seizures :(

Why do
they not want to put the "possible side effect" on their general information
sheet?

I now have told three of our Vet's about it, and they said
they were NEVER told about that possible

side effect
ever.

Kelli 8/30/05

Pfizer claims they
have no information linking Revolution with cluster seizures when it's used on
dogs with epilepsy. However, they DO have information linking Revolution with
serious adverse drug experiences (ADEs) when it's used on "sick, debilitated or
underweight animals." That's why the FDA made Pfizer put a warning on their
label in 2002, stating, "Do not use in sick, debilitated or underweight
animals" That's also why Pfizer's representative told you, "Based on your dog's
history of epilepsy, he would not be a good candidate for our product."

Here is a document from the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine
concerning adverse reactions to heartworm drugs for dogs (including Selamectin,
which is the generic name for Pfizer's Revolution):